His Divinely Attractive Simplicity

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The first time I met Srila Gurudev was very special. It was more than something just emotional. When I was young in my home my father used to take me to visit saints in South India and they are all very powerful, opulent, very special. Yet somehow my heart was never attracted to any of them. But the first time I came to see Srila Gurudev, in that first meeting, my heart went exactly to him because he is simple and saintly. Vaishnavas are simple, not opulent. They don’t go behind any opulence. I saw this simplicity even before I even conversed with him; his first glance made me feel how easy it is to approach this personality. We read in the scriptures that by whose darshan the holy name starts to come out from your heart, understand he is not an ordinary person. In the first meeting when I saw him in the station, suddenly my heart told me he is your Gurudev, he’s your Gurudev, and that is all because of the simplicity seen in him.


A few years after I got initiated by Srila Gurudev I saw him traveling to Punjab with many other Vaishnavas in an ordinary bus that was not comfortable to sit in. If we try to travel all over Punjab, we understand the roads of Punjab are so miserable. Even a healthy person also can have severe body pain from the jerks of the uneven road. But even at the age of seventy Srila Gurudev was so simple and he was traveling with everyone else in an ordinary bus to different places for preaching. That was seen in the life of Srila Gurudev many times. 


In 2002, Srila Guru Maharaj was in Guwahati as he was restraining his preacher due to some health issues. Myself, Tamal Prabhu, Master-ji, and Anantaram were traveling with Gurudev. Gurudev was scheduled to go to Goalpara for a program from Guwahati. He was proposing, “I shall go by train.” That train was the local train with wooden seats—no bathroom, no cushion, nothing is there. But Gurudev continued discussing with devotees, saying, “I will go in the train.” One of the godbrothers who is very dear to Most Revered Srila Gurudev named Sri Madanlal Gupta proposed that Gurudev will not go by train, he will go by car. Gurudev is so simple-hearted that he continued trying to convince everyone, “No, we’ll go in that train, it is very comfortable,” but devotees forcefully changed the plan. Gurudev is a kind of personality who would not spend even a paisa for his own travel comfort; he is not feeling to hire a car. He doesn’t see things like if the tithi is good, he only sees I don’t want to accept any comfort for myself with the money of the Lord. I could see his simplicity many times in this way. 


—Srila Bhakti Kinkar Damodar Maharaj


Excerpted and transcribed with slight edits from Zoom meeting  in glorification of Srila Gurudev on His 96th Appearance Festival (Zoom), 02 Apr 2020


Please send an email to scgm.tirtha.guru@gmail.com with any corrections. 



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